IDF works as a team to provide free educational material to everyone and especially those who cannot afford education from premier colleges. IDF aims to share content for free which is communicated by the slogan ‘Knowledge wants to be free’, embossed on the logo. Their content includes books, CDs, images, professional connections, workshops, conferences, wiki tools and another innovative component. That component is a ‘Knowledge Tour’.

Knowledge Tour

This tour has been planned to travel around the world to give away educational material for free. The tour is designed to use bikes for eco-friendly reasons and has set of other interesting tools to complete the expedition. Track more about the tour on http://www.interaction-design.org/

]]>https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/knowledge-tour-interactive-design-foundation/feed/017.385044 78.48667117.38504478.486671hobbycollegecareerinteractive design logoHOBBY – Indulge in any…https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/hobby-indulge-in-any/
https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/hobby-indulge-in-any/#respondSat, 18 May 2013 05:06:23 +0000http://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/?p=690
]]>https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/hobby-indulge-in-any/feed/017.385044 78.48667117.38504478.486671hobbycollegecareerMy favourite HobbyExam jitters- Trepidation of the highest orderhttps://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/purpose-of-exam/
https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/purpose-of-exam/#respondThu, 16 May 2013 18:46:34 +0000http://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/?p=231With the current trending in the education space, words like exams, fear, depression, nervousness and tension have become synonymic in usage while referring to EXAMS. All this darkness arises during exams because the meaning and purpose of examination has diluted to a pre-requisite for a certification.

Intent to hold exams

The basic intent behind conducting examinations was to allow a student to self appraise and allow the tutor to use it as an evaluation tool. In the ancient time, examination was one of the tools used by a teacher to evaluate the students’ level of knowledge, skill sets and performance. However, in the current era, sadly, examination is the ONLY tool to evaluate a student.

It is time for teachers to expand their ways and means of assessing a student’s ability, skill, knowledge and attitude. With the rising need to approach an exam differently, students also have to re-orient themselves towards exams.

Exam fever at different temperature

The exam fever takes a different avatar depending on the importance of the exam in one’s life, extent of using the results as an evolutionary determinant and impact on one’s persona with a trepidation to disapproval.

For instance competitive exams like CAT, MAT, GATE and so on are screening tests or more of an elimination round for the assessors to pick the best from the crowd. However, each competitive exam will have its hidden criteria to select the right candidates for a given course or job.

Similarly, the main motive behind conducting term-wise exams in schools is to ensure that children and in sync with the pedagogy and are acquiring the necessary knowledge and aptitude required by their age. But now the purpose of conducting is not this anymore. Schools conduct more and more of these exams and tests to check their status of churning out more number of education board toppers.

With this we can infer that the true motive of holding exams is meant for progressive reasons. Hence, it is good to revisit our approach towards writing and preparing for exams.

“Perseverance, focus and goal orientation are commonly heard from people who like talking about them or who are most obliviously seeking for them.” These words can make quite a jargon.

We do not know when these attributes have manifested themselves as US, apart from being just an experience. They are keys to open all the secret lockers in your heart. When we open them, we move towards self realization and this, only our mind realizes. The mind always takes care of comprehension and our heart of one’s experience.

Biography and life stories about J.K.Rowling and Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari have been instrumental in writing this story.

Experiences from my personal life have been influential in weaving this story. It is purely fictitious yet very close to every person’s life who is trying to balance it. Music, cat race in career building have influenced my decision making and various choices in life. You may find shades of these in this story. All through the story there is one question that the hero, Vaibhav finds unanswered “when and why should I listen to my heart? And when and why should I listen to my mind?”

Cloud computing is the smart usage of network but with a lot of aaS es in it. These are not the asses, we know as a donkey, but aaS – ‘as a Service’ tagged to all the functionalities that could be used on a cloud.

]]>https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/the-aas-in-cloud-computing/feed/117.385044 78.48667117.38504478.486671hobbycollegecareerSocial Media Recruitmenthttps://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/social-media-recruitment/
https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/social-media-recruitment/#commentsMon, 06 May 2013 06:35:51 +0000http://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/?p=645With the swirling buzz about social media, there is another branch added to its tree. Recruitment as a function is being executed effectively through social media platforms, Linkedin being the topper.

HR executives specializing in the recruitment vertical are sprawling all over social media platforms. These platforms have set a stage to focus on the specific skill sets and leverage to engage with the right guys.

What are the verticals opening in this space?

Quite a few HR processes are replicated into online processes and are being deployed effectively.

Employee Engagement: Salesforce an early entrant in cloud computing has built systems to enhance employee engagement. The ecosystem of social media networks like facebook and orkut are replicated in these organizational social media networks to allow employee engagement and get a pulse of trends running in the organization. On these platforms certain features are customized for the needs of an organization.

Recruitment: HR recruiters are smartly engaging on different social media to identify candidates who best suit their organization’s requirements. These managers engage in building their network and replenishing their human resource bank with potential candidate contacts.

Interviewing: The stereotypical picture of a recruiter asking questions to a potential candidate across a desk is being substituted by skype calls, facetime and chat rooms. Now people are more and more getting accustomed to virtual habits and hence are using virtual tools to make interview calls and recruitment decisions.

Social media allows the management to know more about an employee’s social life and track their personal references without literal head hunting and investigation.

After the World War II, we saw that the yester-generation in India was motivated by a government job. A person who had a government job was considered successful and fathers were ready to give their daughters in marriage to young men with government jobs. In those day a private job was seen as a risky affair.
After introduction of LPG and Y2k massacre, the trend changed. Success = to having a private IT job. Children were sent to special coaching classes to become an engineer or doctor. This became an educational bubble a kid’s smartness was determined by the course chosen after 10th standard. Commerce and Arts turned invisible to parents, who themselves were treated as kings sometime back. Now, these commerce and art graduate parents pushed their children towards their glorious future as an engineer or doctor. After a few years, parents were also bit by the MBA sting.

What is the parental attitude now? Parents see their children as future CEOs and entrepreneurs. Now, children are encouraged to be innovative and to create new things. The next bubble is growing towards entrepreneurship.

]]>https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/parents-attitude-in-india-how-did-it-change/feed/012.971599 77.59456312.97159977.594563hobbycollegecareerParents in IndiaWhy should I have a hobby?https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/why-should-i-have-a-hobby/
https://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/why-should-i-have-a-hobby/#respondWed, 10 Apr 2013 09:45:14 +0000http://hobbycollegecareer.wordpress.com/?p=622Pursuing a hobby is always an unknown and oblivion act to enhance and develop one’s personality. We indulge in a hobby that represents our personality. People on the softer side choose music, dance or painting as a hobby. People with an adventurous instinct choose wild hobbies like mountaineering, underwater diving and so on. Similarly people enjoying heritage or who like exchanging and networking involve in collectibles.

Sometimes people deliberately choose a hobby to communicate about their likes and dislikes, about their personality and about their choices.

Why should I pursue a hobby?

Stress-buster: For those who engage in busy careers, pursuing hobby becomes important. To vent out their emotions and set aside a space for themselves, people indulge in a hobby. Some such stress busters are cooking, pottery, bird watching, swimming, etc.

Instills a sense of appreciation: When we immerse ourselves in gaining a skill set, it involves practice. With practice, we hone our skills to pursue our favourite hobby more artistically. By involving in ardent practice, we can understand and empathize with another hobbyist and the effort it takes to deliver the same. Though this is a long process, people with a hobby instill in themselves a sense of appreciation.

knowledge enhancement: A hobby cannot always be pursued in solitude. It requires knowledge sharing and team work. When we start advancing and gain acumen pertaining to a hobby, we need more and more relevant information. For this we engage and network with other hobbyists. This allows knowledge enhancement.

Self change happens: Unknowingly as we progress in exploring a hobby, we change with the changing level of skills and obviously changing perception.

Self development: We develop our personality and the aura around us, which changes the world. Though this sounds spiritual and ethereal to hear, a person who has pursued a hobby sincerely for over 5 to 6 years would agree with this aspect of improvement.

Community help: A hobby has its own network and ecosystem due to which it exists among us. This existence helps a community in an indirect way. It provides employment and avocation to people who are unemployed and idle.